â€¢ Confession: I’ve never read Beowulf. However, the trailer â€” stellar cast aside â€” doesn’t exactly make me seventeen kinds of excited for the movie. Note to Zemeckis: That Polar Express-style animation? It still looks stupid, even when you’re doing strange things to an ancient classic instead of ruining a classic children’s book.

â€¢ In alt-weekly news, the Chicago Reader has been sold to Creative Loafing, which publishes papers in Atlanta, Charlotte, Tampa and Sarasota. Blog reaction from the Reader is here.

â€¢ Remember Sweet Valley High? According to a Publishers Weekly email, the series is getting a relaunch soon â€” an updated relaunch involving mobile phones and email. It seems like that would take an entire rewrite, not just a surface makeover; remember what happened when somebody posted a purity test on Veronica Mars (ignoring certain issues with how … OK, no, not nitpicking VM here, not yet)?

â€¢ While you’re logged in at the NYT, check out artist Hope Larson’s OpArt piece, which I am going to go read just as soon as I finish typing here; I’m linking to it already, though, ’cause it’s so purdy.

â€¢ Still sad about the end of Harry Potter. Still tempted to re-read the entire series now. Still not posting anything even remotely approaching a spoiler, promise. Still engrossed in various message-board threads about HP7.